Gerald
Gardner is often referred to as the 'Father of Modern Witchcraft'. Following
the repeal of the last of the Witchcraft Laws in the early 1950's, he
published his classic book Witchcraft Today,
which really brought the 'Witch Cult', as he often called it, into the
public domain.

In 1952, along with his wife
Donna, he moved to the Isle of Man to
become the 'resident Witch' at Cecil Williamson's
Museum of Witchcraft. Ultimately, the museum became Gardner's after he
purchased it from Cecil in 1954.

Articles
about Gerald Gardner

◉ 'Calling All
Covens' - an article about Gardner which appeared in The Sunday
Pictorial, (29th July 1951).

◉
The Illustrated
(September 27th 1952) printed a report on 'Witchcraft in Britain'. As a
result of this article, Doreen
Valiente wrote to
Cecil Williamson,
who was at that time, the owner of the Isle of Man Witchcraft museum. Cecil
subsequently introduced Doreen to Gerald Gardner.

◉
FATE magazine ran a fairly
negative article on Witchcraft in September 1965, which mentions Gardner.
Read it here. Doreen Valiente
responded and her thoughts were published in the December 1965 edition of
FATE. Read her response here.

◉Mike Howard,
the editor and owner of the UK magazine The Cauldron, wrote a
series of four articles about Gerald Gardner. These were first published in
1997, and you can now read them here:

◉Additionally, be sure to take a look at Gerald Gardner's own
biography,
Gerald Gardner: Witch by Jack Bracelin, although it was actually
ghost-written by Idries Shah
who was a close friend of Gardner's.

◉ See pictures of
many items that were once housed in Gardner's Witchcraft Museum collection
here (in French)

(The Witches Mill then and now.
Modern Image taken
in 2008 - many thanks to Tof.)

(Many thanks to Melissa and Rufus Harrington, from whose collection
of Doreen Valiente's scrapbooks, several of the articles and images on this
site, came from.)

Gardner's
books and articles

Gerald Gardner wrote several books on Witchcraft and Magic. In 1939, his
first magical book
A Goddess Arrives was published, this was followed in 1949 by
High Magics Aid. Both of these books were works of fiction.
Gardner is probably best known for his non-fiction books;
Witchcraft Today, first published in 1954 shortly after the repeal
of the Witchcraft Laws, and the
The Meaning of Witchcraft, published in 1959.